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You know, Mexicans really are a funny lot. At first glance, they seem very similar to their neighbours up north. They do (now and then) eat McDonald's, watch The Simpsons, and listen to 50 Cent. But after a while, you realise that they actually prefer their own stuff, and in their own lovable way. This couldn't be evident in anything more than in Mexican music.

This is Oaxaca's biggest market area, and exploring everything inside it is quite an experience. The markets are large, varied, and easy to get lost in. The more tame areas sell bags, music, kitchenware, and clothing. Further in, you can find the fruit and vegetables, the live chickens, and the cooked food stands. Venture in as deep as you can, and you'll find the really strange stuff: whole dead chickens, still with heads and feet on; piles of dead fish staring up at you; and of course, the famous fried grasshoppers of Oaxaca.

Seems like I'm losing my knack for finding good hostels, because this place was dull as batpoo. Very nice building and all, but hardly any kind of common hangout area, and almost nobody else around to meet and do stuff with. The best word to describe this place would be: sterile. Sorry, Lonely Planet, but you've let me down again. Maybe the ones further down the list for each city are the better ones. Anyway, next time I come to Oaxaca, I'm staying somewhere else.

What can I say, the guy's a true blue Aussie champion. This is what being an Australian and going to Mexico is all about. Check out the video.

This afternoon at Posada Mexico Hostel in San Cristóbal, we were a crew of six yobboes from around the world, united together to lay waste to the cultural soul of this town. We were: myself; Sean and Lachlan, two more Aussie boys, from Melbourne; two heavy-drinking Scottish girls, whose names I can't remember (hey, I was drinking heavily as well!); and a hippie girl from Baltimore, USA, who had a massive tattoo on her back. Together we sat on the grass, ate BBQ chicken, drank beer and tequila, and wore colourful Mexican wrestling masks. Good times.

I only had it so I could say: "I went to Mexico, and I ate a falafel". There, see, I said it :P. But actually, the falafel in the small, Israeli-run shop in downtown San Cristóbal was one of the best meals I've had in a while, and it was possibly the best falafel I've had in my whole life. Fresh pita pockets, hommus mixed with oil and whole chick peas, coleslaw salad on the side, and sauces of salsa verde and salsa rojo. Mmm... ¡sabbaba, amigo!

My first experience of mailing stuff home from overseas wasn't as difficult as I was dreading; but then again, it also wasn't without its hurdles. There was no way I was going to cart around all the shmontses and shmutters that I bought this morning, so I quickly made my way to the San Cristóbal oficina de correos (i.e. "post office"), and arranged for it all to be sent Down Under.

San Cristóbal is one of the cheaper places to stay in Mexico, and I was long overdue for some shmontse and shmutter shopping in a Mexican market. So this morning, I headed on down to one of the city's bigger mercados, and found some nice stuff for my sisters back home. I got a pair of dolls; a pair of wooden flutes; a small herd of stuffed animals; and two beautiful little Mayan blouses. Cute stuff, don't you think?

This is a great bar in the centre of San Cristóbal, with a talented live band, with the 2-for-1 cocktails that seem to be so common around here, and with energetic dancing as the night wears on. A british girl named Billy, who I bumped into this afternoon — I met her about 2 weeks ago in Valladolid — recommended it to me, so I brought my Aussie mate Sean (from Posada Mexico Hostel) along and checked it out. This is the place to go at night in San Cristóbal.

This afternoon I finally did something that I've been meaning to do ever since I got to Mexico: I hired a bicycle, and went and explored the town on it. For just 25 pesos an hour, it's the best and most fun way to see San Cristóbal.

San Cristóbal is also perfectly suited for cycling, as:

• It's big but not huge.
• It has flat as well as fairly hilly bits.
• It has varying grades of road so you don't get bored (sealed, cobblestone, and unsealed).
• It has a nice variety of scenery (mountains, "colonial bits", slum bits, church bits).